Quenching is a well known technique used to rapidly cool a machined work piece. Quenching is used readily in the manufacture of metal work pieces. A quenching process may be used to cool a metal work piece after the work piece has been heated to a high temperature for shaping or manipulating it in some way, for example to strengthen it.
In a known quenching system, a quenching tank is filled with a quenching agent, for example water or oil. A component to be quenched is then submerged in the quenching agent in the quenching tank so that the surface of the component is in contact with the quenching agent.
Some components that need to be quenched are hollow and, to ensure that inner surfaces of the component are quenched along with the outer surface of the component, it is necessary for the quenching agent to come into contact with the inner surface.
It is important that, when a component is placed in the quenching agent, the quenching agent comes into contact with the entire inner surface of the component. If the portion of a surface of a component is not quenched following a heat treatment process, or if a portion of the surface is quenched less than another portion of the surface, then there can be uneven quenching of the component.